Salgini villagers urge Collector to take up road repairs

SANGUEM: With hardly a month left for monsoon, the villagers residing in the hilly areas of Verlem, Salgini and Tudov in Sanguem are literally in doubt as to whether the road to their village will be repaired in time before the arrival of monsoon or will they have to face yet another season with deteriorated roads.

The over 200 villagers residing in these hilly areas had pinned high hopes of getting their roads repaired before the onset of monsoon after Collector South Goa Ajit Roy had assured the villagers to repair the road before the monsoons.

The assurance by Collector Roy had followed after the villagers residing at Verlem, Salgini and Tudov had threatened to boycott the Zilla Panchayat election which was scheduled in March.

Given the assurance by the Collector at a meeting held at Sanguem, the villagers had agreed to withdraw their agitation but at the same time had demanded the Collector to give the assurance in writing which the later could not provide as the Code of Conduct was in force.

However, soon thereafter not only did the Zilla Panchayat election got cancelled but the spread of coronavirus and the State facing nationwide lockdown made the villagers worry as to whether they will have a motorable road before the coming monsoon season.

It may be recalled that in the last monsoon season, the villagers more particularly the school going children and office goers were made to face difficult times after the lone KTC bus plying to the village had withdrawn its services citing bad roads and that there is danger for the life of the people travelling in the bus if it traverses the slippery and the bad patch of the 12 kilometers road to Salgini Village from Netravali.

While the election to Zilla Panchayat may be held anytime after the lockdown what about the improvements and road repair work in the village, questioned the villagers, who still claim of there being sufficient time to repair the village road, if the lockdown ends on May 3, with no further extension.

Doubts are however raised if the lockdown period sees an extension and in such an event, the villagers will be compelled to witness yet another season of bad roads in the village. It is pertinent to note here that the villagers are compelled to walk the distance of 12 kilometers once the KTC bus stops plying in the village when the mud portion of the road turns slippery and difficult to negotiate.

The villagers have urged the Collector South Goa for immediate working on the movement of file pertaining to the road repair works in Salgini Village as was assured by him at a meeting held with the villagers and the government officials at Sanguem.